Top 5 Late Summer Flies

Go-To Patterns for Late Summer

Summer Cutthroat

With summer heading out, we decided to review our fly boxes and select the top 5 patterns that we've been using this month and going into September as we target trout in both rivers and streams. Click each image or the fly name to see the video tutorial.

It comes as no surprise one of our best-producing later-summer patterns is from Lance Egan. But seriously the Bionic Ant is a pattern that should be in all summer fly boxes. We done well with it on lakes and rivers alike. Easy to tie.

Even as summer dies down, there are still lots of caddis. But this time of year, you may need to hone your imitation a bit more. The Palomino both floats well and acts as a great imitation -- even in slow water.

Big things come in small packages. We're (Cheech, Brandon and I) are finding that this simple little nymph is great for high pressured waters where you need to get down fast and still offer good imitation for the naturals.

As the summer goes on, damsels can become less of a fixture on lakes and reservoirs. Fish can also get a little picky in both imitation as well as presentation. This little damsel offers both. It's a good imitation that can be placed lightly in front of feeding trout, even in more shallow water.

Although mice patterns can be deadly most any time of year, as summer winds down and we move into fall, trout start to key on streamers and also mice. This is the mini version of its bigger brother and works a bit better on pressured waters or smaller waters where you need to raise a ruckus but want a smaller offering.